Scotland Yard team to travel to Pakistan to investigate murder of Benazir Bhutto

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A team from Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command will travel to Pakistan to help investigate Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

Gordon Brown has agreed to send "technical experts" at the request of president Pervez Musharraf.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We can confirm that at the request of the Pakistan government a small team of officers from the Met Counter Terrorism Command will be travelling to Pakistan to provide support and assistance in the investigation into the death of Benazir Bhutto.

"The officers will travel to Pakistan as soon as possible. The Pakistan authorities continue to lead the investigation into Benazir Bhutto's death."

The country's Electoral Commission has announced the general election scheduled for January 8 have been postponed to February 18, despite the objections of the two main opposition parties - including Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party - which had wanted it to go ahead as planned.

However, there were no reports of mass protests against the announcement and the two opposition parties agreed to take part.

President Musharraf today admitted there were shortcomings in Pakistan's handling of the case, including the hosing down of the bomb site hours after the attack, widely seen as undermining a detailed forensic examination. But he dismissed any suggestion there was a plan to conceal evidence.

"I'm not fully satisfied. I will accept that: cleaning the area. Why did they do that? If you are meaning they did that by design I would say no. It's just inefficiency, people thinking things have to be cleared, traffic has to go through," he said.

The developments came after Benazir's son Bilawal Bhutto Zadari was thrust into the international spotlight following his mother's death.

A picture of him taken just weeks ago at a fancy dress party shows his face plastered with heavy make-up and a pair of horns attached to his head.

Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal dons a devil outfit for a fancy dress party

The picture, from a friend's page on the networking internet site Facebook, is a telling reminder of the carefree life that Bilawal enjoyed until his mother Benazir's murder last Thursday.

Suddenly the 19-year-old undergraduate was thrust into the international spotlight and shouldered with the burden of heading Pakistan's greatest political dynasty.

The picture was taken only a few weeks earlier, when Bilawal lived in ordinary student accommodation in Christ Church College with no obvious security.

He used the surname Lawalib - his first name spelt backwards - presumably to avoid the attention his real name might have brought on campus.

The pictures posted by friends on Facebook suggest Bilawal had settled well into undergraduate life.

In one he appears relaxed and happy as he poses with friends after a matriculation ceremony, which formally recognises new members of the university.

In the Hallowe'en photograph he has added the comment: "We're ready to bring hell on earth. . . mwaaahahahahahah."

Bilawal had joined the Oxford Union and attended several debates in his first term, following in his mother's footsteps.

She was president of the society during her time at the university in the seventies.

Luke Tryl, who was president last term, said: "He's very charismatic and engaging, he speaks confidently and eloquently. He seems very worldly and aware.

"He's chatty, he is willing to speak to lots of different people and he's good at making friends.

"He never said who his family were. I only found out some time after I met him."

Life for Bilawal, now a co-chairman of his mother's Pakistan People's Party, is likely to be very different when he returns for a second term later this month. He is expected to be given 24-hour protection.

His mother was killed by a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi as she campaigned in Pakistan's elections.

Bilawal has since returned to the family home in Dubai. Term is due to start in Oxford on January 13, but he may delay his return.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday there were problems with Pakistan's investigation into Benazir Bhutto's killing, and conceded uncertainty remained over the exact cause of the former prime minister's death. However, he denied accusations that the military or intelligence services were involved in the attack. Musharraf spoke a week after the opposition leader's assassination in a shooting and bomb attack as demands for an international investigation into the attack intensified. Many Bhutto supporters expressed doubt about the government conclusion that she had been killed when a bomb blast slammed her head against her vehicle. In an effort to blunt the criticism, he invited Scotland Yard investigators to aid Pakistan's probe and conceded investigators may have erred in giving a precise cause of death just a day after her killing. "One should not give a statement that's 100 percent final. That's the flaw that we suffer from," he said, noting more evidence was emerging into the attack. "We needed more experience, maybe more forensic and technical experience that our people don't have. Therefore, I thought Scotland Yard may be more helpful." He also admitted there were shortcomings in Pakistan's handling of the case, including the hosing down of the bomb site hours after the attack, widely seen as undermining a detailed forensic examination. But he dismissed any suggestion there was a plan to conceal evidence. "I'm not fully satisfied. I will accept that: cleaning the area. Why did they do that? If you are meaning they did that by design I would say no. It's just inefficiency, people thinking things have to be cleared, traffic has to go through," he said. A senior police investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said police had already secured key evidence from the scene, including the head of the suspected bomber, body parts, two pistols, and mobile phones. Scotland Yard investigators, with their superior forensic techniques, could help determine whether either pistol was fired in the attack, he said. Bhutto's death plunged an already volatile Pakistan deeper into crisis and stoked fears of a political meltdown as the nation struggled to contain an explosion of populist anger and Islamic militant violence. Rioting in the wake of her death caused an estimated 80 billion rupees (US$1.3 billion, ¤880 million) in damage in her home province of Sindh, said Akhtar Zamin, provincial home minister. Citing the violence, the government decided to put off crucial parliamentary polls for six weeks until Feb. 18.

 

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